How Much Water Do You Really Use?
Most people have heard of the concept of a “carbon footprint," which is a measure of how much our personal, daily activities affect the environment in terms of greenhouse gases. For example, a person who bikes to work, uses energy-saving lightbulbs and recycles religiously would have a smaller carbon footprint that a person who drives a Hummer, makes overseas trips once a month and is forgetful about turning off electrical appliances.
It turns out that a carbon footprint is only one way of looking at your environmental impact. As many countries struggle with freshwater shortages, there has been a push to account for just how much water people actually consume in their day-to-day lives – in other words, a “water footprint.” Like a carbon footprint, a water footprint takes into consideration hidden environmental tolls, such as the water needed to grow grain or maintain animals in order to produce just one hamburger. Water footprints can be calculated on the individual, national and global levels.
In March 2008, a University of London scientist was honored with the Stockholm Water Prize for his work on the concept of “virtual water," which is a way of calculating how much water is used to produce a range of different commodities. For example, it takes 140 liters (about 37 gallons) of freshwater to produce one cup of coffee, which takes into account not only the water content of the drink itself, but the freshwater needed to grow, process, package and ship the coffee.
It may seem complicated to have multiple ways to measure just how much our individual actions weigh on the environment. However, in a world where one person in five has no access to freshwater, it’s a step in the right direction any time hyperconsumers in developed countries can to think about exactly how their choices affect other members of the planet.
To find out how your consumption choices add up, use Waterfootprint.org's individual water footprint calculator.
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Making it relevant to the public
The water footprint calculator is unfortunately not very good, as they have you answer how many kilograms of different types of food you eat each week, which may not be something an average person thinks about when they go grocery shopping. The importance of virtual water is to create a unit to compare the impact of different lifestyles, in the same way that the carbon footprint has done. The calculator does not in the end give a good comparative value; it does not explain how much an average person in “industrialized countries” uses, and what the global average is, and where it is easiest to decrease the water usage.
It is important to make people understand that it is not as obvious as you might think to estimate how much water is actually used for our foodstuffs or things. It does, for example, take less water when making a pint of beer than a glass of milk, and a cotton t-shit might be more water-intensive than a polyester shirt.
Comparative tools such as virtual water, carbon footprint, and others, are great when striving towards sustainability. Hopefully more information will reach the public. Some British grocery stores will start marking their foods with the total carbon dioxide emissions to produce and ship the food, why not for water? The UNDP report from 2006 gives an extensive view of the water-situation in the world. So many things are already known. The report touches the subject of virtual water, as well as some of the many reasons for the water shortage in most of the countries on the world. Agriculture is one of the biggest reasons, but unavoidable with the large and rapidly growing global population. It shows that meat production is growing globally, but there are also a need for some sound choices from consumers, where not all meat is bad, and not all vegetables good. It also shows that the lack of water also leads to poor sanitation.
Here is Sweden the general public has no interest what so ever on how much water they use, and what it means to have clean water, which really bothers me and makes me think that our society in industrialized countries can be so self-involved. Sweden has historically never had a problem with fresh water; it is plentiful here - until this year, when the global climate is even starting to hit Sweden’s water resources.
By reaching the public it makes it possible to help them make sound choices, and in that way you finally make the biggest impact. It is important for people to understand that water is a natural resource that is running out. There are so many layers to this problem, and it is a problem that is so extreme and intense, I think that people are going to have a hard time wrapping their minds around it.
My point is that reaching to the public, and making them understand that they can through small choices in life make the world a slightly better place for so many people. And virtual water is one of the tools to help them make the right choices.
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